by John Curran
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Lord Edgware Dies, set amongst the glitterati of London’s West End, began life in Rhodes in the autumn of 1931 and was completed on an archaeological dig at Nineveh on a table bought for £10 at a bazaar in Mosul. It was dedicated to Dr and Mrs Campbell Thompson, who led the archaeological expedition at Nineveh, and a skeleton found in a grave mound on site was christened Lord Edgware in honour of the book.
The inspiration for the book and for the character of Carlotta Adams came from the American actress Ruth Draper, who was famed for her ability to transform herself from a Hungarian peasant to a Park Lane heiress in a matter of minutes and with a minimum of props. In her Autobiography Christie says, ‘I thought how clever she was and how good her impersonations were . . . thinking about her led me to the book Lord Edgware Dies.’
Although never mentioned in the same reverent breath as The Murder of Roger Ackroyd or Murder on the Orient Express, Lord Edgware Dies, despite its lack of a stunning surprise solution, is a model of detective fiction. The plot is audaciously simple and simply audacious and, like many of the best plots, seems complicated until one simple and, in retrospect, obvious, fact is grasped; then everything clicks neatly into place. Every chapter pushes the story forward and almost every conversation contains information to enable Poirot to answer the question, ‘Did Lady Edgware carry out her threat to take a taxi to her husband’s house and stab him in the base of the skull?’
Lord Edgware himself is in the same class as the victims from both 1938 novels, Mrs Boynton from Appointment with Death and Simeon Lee from Hercule Poirot’s Christmas; he is a thoroughly nasty individual whose family despises him and whose passing few mourn. There are also unspoken suggestions of a relationship between himself and his Greek god-like butler, Alton.
The progress of Lord Edgware Dies was mentioned sporadically by Christie to her new husband, Max Mallowan, in letters written to him from Grand Hotel des Roses, Rhodes in 1931.
Tuesday Oct. 13th [1931]
I’ve got on well with book – Lord Edgware is dead all right – and a second tragedy has now occurred – the Ruth Draper having taken an overdose of veronal. Poirot is being most mysterious and Hastings unbelievably asinine.
. . . breakfast at 8 . . . meditation till 9. Violent hitting of the typewriter till 11.30 (or the end of the chapter – sometimes if it is a lovely day I cheat to make it a short one!)
Presumably there were ‘lovely days’ at the time of writing Chapters 8 and 16!
Oct. 16th
Lord Edgware is getting on nicely. He’s dead – Carlotta Adams (Ruth Draper) is dead – and the nephew who succeeds to the property is just talking to Poirot about his beautiful alibi! There is also a film actor with a face like a ‘Greek God’ – but he is looking a bit haggard at present. In fact a very popular mixture I think. Just a little bit cheap perhaps . . .
Oct. 23rd
True, I have got to Chapter XXI of Lord Edgware which is all to the good . . . I should never have done that if you had been there . . . I must keep my mind on what the wicked nephew does next . . .
All of the notes for this novel are spread over almost 50 pages of a pocket-diary sized Notebook 41. They outline most of the novel very closely and there is little in the way of deletions or variations. Unless there were earlier discarded notes it would seem that the writing of this novel went smoothly and that the plot was well established before Christie began writing. The first page of this notebook is headed ‘Ideas – 1931’ and the first ten pages, prior to the notes for Lord Edgware Dies, contain brief notes for ‘The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest’ (1932) and an even briefer note for Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, as well as a one-sentence outline of the crucial idea behind Three Act Tragedy.
There are also two references to Thirteen at Dinner, the title under which Lord Edgware Dies appeared in the USA, but it is not clear if these two references are coincidental or if the idea of 13 guests at a dinner (as mentioned in Chapter 15) was an earlier idea that Christie subsumed into Lord Edgware Dies. The first reference lists 13 members of the Detection Club in connection with this plot (as discussed in Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks), and five pages later the idea of ‘Thirteen at Dinner as a short story?’ is considered though not pursued.
Two jottings, a dozen pages apart, accurately reflect the first two chapters of the book; and in between these, in the last extract below, Christie summarises the murder plot. As can be seen, the only details to change are minor ones – the name Mountcarlin changes to Edgware, the secretary Miss Gerard becomes Miss Carroll and Martin Squire becomes Bryan Martin, although at this stage he is merely an admirer rather than a fellow actor. The Piccadilly Palace Hotel, the door ajar, the waiter and the corn knife all appear in the book.
An actress Jane W comes to see Poirot – engaged to Duke of Merton – her husband – not very bright – best way would be to kill him she drawls – Hastings a little shocked. But I shouldn’t like to be hanged. Door is then seen to be a little ajar. Martin Squire [Bryan Martin] – pleasant hearty young fellow – an admirer of Miss Wilkinson’s. He is seen next evening having supper with Carlotta
Sequence
At theatre – CA’s performance – H’s reflections – Is JW really such a good actress? Looks round – JW – her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. Supper at Savoy – Jane at next table – CA there also (with Ronnie Marsh) – rapprochement – JW and Poirot – her sitting room – her troubles. I’ll have to kill him (just as waiter is going out) Enter Bryan (and CA). JW has gone into bedroom. B asks what did she say – means it – amoral – would kill anyone quite simply
Plot
Jane speaks to Carlotta – bribes her – a thousand pounds – to go to Mr? Jefferson’s dinner. Rendezvous at Piccadilly Palace at 7.30. They change clothes – C goes to dinner. At 9.15 J. rings her up. C. says quite alright. J goes to Montcarlin House – rings – tells butler (new) that she is Lady Mountcarlin goes in – Hullo John. Secretary (Miss Gerard) sees her from above. Shoot? Or stab? Ten minutes later she leaves. At 10.30 butler goes to room – dead. Informs police – they come. Go to Savoy – Lady M came in at half an hour ago or following morning. J kills him with corn knife belonging to her maid Eloise
Christie then considers her suspects, although this list is much shorter than the eventual cast of characters:
People
Lord Mountcarlin [Edgware]
Other man Duke? Millionaire?
Bryan Martin – actor in films with her
Lord Mountcarlin’s nephew Ronnie West – debonair Peter Wimseyish
Miss Carroll – Margaret Carroll – Middle-aged woman – a Miss Clifford
The reference to ‘debonair Peter Wimsey’ is to Lord Peter Wimsey, the detective creation of Christie’s crime-writing contemporary Dorothy L. Sayers and the hero of (at that stage) a half-dozen novels and a volume of short stories. The Clifford reference is, in all likelihood, to a member of the Clifford family at whose home the young Agatha attended social evenings.
The vital letter written by Carlotta and forwarded from her sister in Canada (Chapters 20 and 23) is sketched, but only the crucial section, containing the giveaway clue:
Arrival of a letter
he said ‘I believe it would take in Lord Mountcarlin himself. Now will you take something on for a bet. Big stakes, mind.’ I laughed and said ‘How much’ but the answer fairly took my breath away. 10,000 dollars, no more no less. Oh, little sister – think of it. Why, I said, I’d play a hoax on the King in Buckingham Palace and risk lese majeste for that. Well, then we got down to details.
And the Five Questions of Chapter 14 are listed in cryptic form:
Then Points?
A. Sudden change of mind
B. Who intercepted letter
C. Meaning of his glare
D. The pince-nez – nobody owns them – except Miss Carroll?
E. The telephone call (they will go to Hampstead)
The Notebook does include one intriguing sequence, not refl
ected in the book:
. . . or says I have been used as a tool – I feel ill. I didn’t know what I ought to do – letter to Superintendent of police (rang up) – letter to Bryan Martin. A telephone number Victoria 7852 . . . No, no, I forgot – he wouldn’t be there. Tomorrow will do.
A letter she writes but does not post? Or a friend comes to see her?
These would seem to be the actions of Carlotta Adams as described by her maid in Chapter 10; perhaps the original intention was to report the abandoned phone call directly. And the second reference is to the vital letter to her sister, the facsimile of which, in Chapter 23, gives Poirot the clue that eventually solves the case.
Page 53 of Notebook 41 throws a further intriguing sidelight on Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?. The following note appears under a heading:
Chapter XXVI
Why didn’t they ask Evans
Ah! I can see it all now – Evans comes. Questions about BM [Bryan Martin]. She answers – pince-nez left behind
This refers to Chapter 28 of Lord Edgware Dies and the questioning of Carlotta’s maid, Ellis. At the end of the previous chapter Poirot has a revelation when, passing a cinema-goer in the street, he overhears the observation, ‘If they’d just had the sense to ask Ellis . . .’; or, in other words, ‘Why didn’t they (have the sense to) ask Ellis.’ It is entirely possible that the writing of Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? followed closely on the completion of Lord Edgware Dies. Although there are no notes for the later novel its serialisation began the same month, September 1933, in which Lord Edgware Dies was published. Christie possibly felt that the questioning of Evans/Ellis, and the intriguing reason for the lack of questioning, deserved a more elaborate construction than the one given in Lord Edgware Dies. And so she wrote Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, where the identification and questioning of Evans is the entire raison d’être of the book. Is it entirely coincidental that the Evans of the later novel is also a maid? For further discussion of the Ellis/Evans enigma see the notes on The Sittaford Mystery.
Three Act Tragedy
7 January 1935
* * *
Who poisoned Reverend Babbington at Sir Charles’s cocktail party? And, more bafflingly, why? What became of Sir Bartholomew’s mysterious butler Ellis? What secret did Mrs de Rushbridger hide? In the last act Poirot links these three events to expose a totally unexpected murderer – and an even more unexpected motive.
* * *
Three Act Tragedy is based on one of the most original ideas in the entire Christie output. A single sentence in the Notebooks shows the inspiration for the novel and from it Christie produced a perfectly paced and baffling whodunit. In fact the book is full of clever and original ideas. Apart from the brilliant central concept we also meet a victim murdered not because of what she knows but on account of what she doesn’t know; a new conjuring trick in a clever poisoning gambit; a witty yet chilling closing line; and, unwittingly, a foreshadowing, in the final chapter title, of a famous case to come. Mr Satterthwaite, normally the partner in crime of the mysterious Mr Quin, here makes one of two appearances alongside Hercule Poirot, the other being the novelette ‘Dead Man’s Mirror’ from Murder in the Mews.
Three Act Tragedy has ideas in common with Lord Edgware Dies from two years earlier. Both are set firmly among the glittering classes; both feature a murderous member of the acting profession involved in a deadly masquerade; both feature a clothes designer and an observant playwright among the suspects; and both feature Hercule Poirot. Oliver Manders’ motorcycle ‘accident’ on the night of Sir Bartholomew’s death is the same as that engineered by Bobby and Frankie in the previous year’s Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?. A variation on the impersonation at the centre of the plot was also to appear in the following year’s book, Death in the Clouds, with a murderer disguised as a plane steward; and, in more light-hearted vein, the same ruse was the basis for the short story ‘The Listerdale Mystery’, first published in 1925. This ploy, and its reverse – a servant masquerading as an employer – is used in many Christie titles, for example The Mystery of the Blue Train, Appointment with Death, One, Two, Buckle my Shoe, Sparkling Cyanide, Taken at the Flood and After the Funeral, as well as the long short story ‘Greenshaw’s Folly’.
It is also possible that this novel is Christie’s adaptation, tongue somewhat in cheek, of that well-known cliché of classic detective fiction, the guilty butler. With Three Act Tragedy she managed a solution in which The Butler Did It – and at the same time, The Butler Didn’t Do It. And the other old chestnut, the secret passage, also gets an airing, although almost as an aside.
The notes for Three Act Tragedy are the last to outline the course of a novel accurately with little extraneous material or ideas not included in the published version. From Death in the Clouds onwards notes contain speculation and changes of mind, but the notes for titles up to, and including, Three Act Tragedy are relatively organised and straightforward.
Notebooks 33 and 66 contain the bulk of the plotting, 40 pages, but the brilliantly original basis for the book was sketched, four years before publication, in Notebook 41. This is the Notebook whose first page is headed ‘Ideas – 1931’, the first half-dozen pages of which include outlines for ‘The Mystery of the Baghdad/Spanish Chest’, ‘The Second Gong/Dead Man’s Mirror’ and a brief allusion to Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, before the detailed draft for Lord Edgware Dies. In the middle of these we find the following:
Idea for book
Murder utterly motiveless because dead man and murderer unacquainted. Reason – a rehearsal
This unique idea was left to percolate for two years before the bulk of the novel was written during 1933. Almost inevitably, the background would have to be somewhat theatrical. And from the first page of the book Sir Charles Cartwright’s ability to assume a role onstage is emphasised. Mr Satterthwaite watches Sir Charles walk up the path from the sea and observes ‘something indefinable that did not ring true’ about his portrayal of ‘the Retired Naval man’; and this is, in effect, the foundation on which the novel is built.
Notebook 33 sketches, in cryptic notes, the opening scene of the book – Sir Charles, observed by Mr Satterthwaite, climbing the hill towards his house. This is followed by a list of the characters and, apart from the mysterious Richard Cromwell, who may be the forerunner of Oliver Manders, the names listed are close to those in the published book.
The Manor House Mystery
Ronald [Sir Charles] Cartwright walks up – shiplike rolling gait – clean shaven face – not have been sure [if he actually was a sailor]. Mr Satterthwaite smiling to himself
Egg/Ray Lytton Gore
Lady Mary Lytton Gore
Richard Cromwell
Mr and Mrs Babbington
Sir Bartholomew Frere [Strange]
Capt. and Mrs Dakers
Angela Sutcliffe
Satterthwaite
Captain Dacres – bad lot – little man like jockey
Mrs Cynthia Dacres runs dress shops (Ambrosine)
Anthony McCrane [Astor] – playwright
Miss Hester [Milray] – secretary – dour ugly woman of forty-three
The title at the top of the page – ‘The Manor House Mystery’ – is a generic and inadequate one and does not appear again. Three Act Tragedy is more dramatic and is in keeping with the theatrical theme – an actor, a playwright, a dress designer, a masquerade and the motive of a rehearsal.
The all-important discussion of Ellis, the butler, and his mysterious disappearance is sketched, as is the possible connection between the two fatal dinner-parties:
Bit about butler
Chapter II
Interview with Johnson – mellow atmosphere. Then it must be this fellow, Ellis; tells all about butler – not there a fortnight – questioned by police – not seen to leave house but be left – looks fishy. Says Miss Lytton Gore told him about other death. Must be some connection but was likely to be the butler. Why did the fellow disappear if he hadn’t got a guilty cons
cience?
Port analysed – found correct. Inspector comes in – talks about nicotine poisoning. [Second Act, Chapter 2]
London – Egg arrives over to dine with them – pale, wounded looking. The position – the three of us – questions. Are the deaths of Sir B[artholomew] and B[abbington connected?]
Yes
If so, what people were at one and which at the other
Miss Sutcliffe, Captain and Mrs Dacres, Miss Wills and Mr Manders
You can wash out Angela and Mr Manders
Egg says can’t wash out Miss Sutcliffe. I don’t know her
Mr S says can’t wash out anybody
She has washed out Mr Manders
Egg agrees [Second Act, Chapter 7]
Notebook 66 opens when the investigation is well under way and the interviews with the suspects are divided between the self-styled detectives. The first page is headed:
Division of work
P suggests Egg should tackle Mrs Dacres; C[harles Cartwright] Freddie D[acres] and A[ngela] S[utcliffe]; S[atterthwaite] Miss Wills and O[liver] M[anders]. Says Miss Wills will have seen something. C. says S. do AS – will do the Wills woman. P suggests S. should do OM [Third Act, Chapter 5]
Miss W[ills]
Sir C. – birthmark on butler’s arm. She gets him to hand her the dish. As he goes out looks back – her smile was disquieting in the extreme. She writes in a little book. [Third Act, Chapter 9]
An experiment – I will give the party. Charles stays behind – the glasses etc. Miss Will’s face – P appeals for anyone to tell anything they know [Third Act, Chapter 11]
The third death, that of Mrs de Rushbridger, and the revelatory discussion of the play rehearsal are also sketched briefly.
Mr Satterthwaite and Poirot go to Yorkshire. Mrs R dead – a small boy got it from a man who said he got it from a loony lady – ‘Bit loony she was.’ She cannot speak now, says Poirot. This must be stopped – then is someone else in danger [Third Act, Chapter 13]